Just four months after paying $32 million to settle a shareholder class action over disclosures relating to allegations of foreign bribery, engineering services company CIMIC faces another class action, this one alleging failures to keep the market informed about issues with its Middle East operations.
The Labor party will look to cross benchers in the Senate to overturn the Morrison government’s new rules governing class action funders, saying the regulations would make litigation more expensive.
A local court magistrate overseeing the ANZ criminal cartel case has denied a bid by prosecutors to be given twice the length of time typically allotted to parties for case conference discussions, saying the sooner the proceedings can be transferred to the Federal Court the better.
Search engine giant Google has fired off another round of criticism of the Government’s proposed media bargaining code, calling it “unworkable” and “extremely one-sided and unfair”.
A judge has signed off on a $10.5 million settlement in a class action over the 2015 Scotsburn bushfire in Victoria, but slashed the costs of the law firm that brought the case by over $1 million.
A judge has dismissed a class action accusing Government ministers of misfeasance in public office over the practice of securing Nauruan visas for those detained on the island.
The legal watchdog in Victoria will be asked to probe potential misconduct against the legal team behind the controversial Banksia Securities class action for their fees in a separate class action, which last year settled for $40 million.
New laws aimed at regulating litigation funders are due to commence on Saturday, but Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is keeping a lid on four emails exchanged with the watchdog in the days leading up to the decision to bring in the sweeping changes.
Lawyer Alex Elliott, the son of the funder behind the Banksia Securities class action, has been ordered to give a “full, frank and honest” explanation of his role in an alleged fraudulent scheme to inflate legal fees in the case, and he risks his career if he’s not forthcoming.
Two Westpac units have made admissions and said they would not defend proceedings brought by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission over fees charged for services that were not provided to hundreds of financial advice customers.